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Sure, clichés are effective and have purpose, you're right. Edit : And I can understand that we consider things differently, what is cliché for me might not be for you. Matter of taste and consumed mediums I suppose.

I really feel like the eye thing has been done over and over in other games (hell, even in D&D : it's an old trope), and the game already have flying units. That being said, the idea of a psi-mind-bridge is realy, really nice. In fact, expending on the behavior between aliens and how they work together could be the way to go to make them feel more 'alien' (whatever that means) or distinct at least, without having to make more art. Maybe it's because I do not play the latest builds (or haven't played enough : what I am saying is that I could be mistaken) but the aliens do not feel that different. The andron are cold and stupid "I have to kill machines", without care for cover or friendly fire. Because of that, they are the more distinct I think, not because they affect you in a new way, but because they affect the other aliens. So yeah, sure, compared to the caesans, the sebillians seem to be way more aggressive to the point that they seem crazy at times. The little caesans are sneaky flanking guys. There is the glowing in the dark dudes and the terryfing I eat your face in one go spider. They all have their quirks, but I'm not sure what they do impact what the others are doing that much. It's more a "nice detail thing" as far as tactics are concerned than a game changer. On that subject, killing the officers could have an effect beside ending mind war. As an example, some soldiers would just freak out and run for a bit, or some would just panic where they are. A kind of reverse mind war, if you will. Depending on the settings of each alien, it could give some very weird results. It would be nice to have some aliens freaking out being even worse than the mind war. Imagine an alien that officers have to micromanage, or else it just starts eating everything with way more TU that is reasonable. It would be a terrifying foe and a potential hasard for the aliens, thus, an objective, a tool for you to use, just as the andron or tanks could be both bombs you can use and very dangerous threats. Another idea would be to have the zombie making spider stop on the cadaver of fallen comrades (or Xenonauts) and eat them in order to heal. That way, they are not just brainded screeching creatures, but really predators barely domesticated that the aliens somewhat control in order to maintain order and punish in their ranks, as well as eating your face off. Without officers, sebilians could throw caesans or the weaker sebelians in front. That kind of thing would make the aliens "society" really oppressive and brutal, it could tickle the player curiosity and reading Dr. Arrogant Smart could shed some nice light on this. So yeah, having more cool aliens is nice, but making sure that the aliens have more to them would also be nice. (That being said, having alien tanks, mutating alien things, alien beastmasters of some kind, or hell, even alien eyes of floating brain-plants would be really nice, but in so far as it's not just a new asset with new stats and slightly different behaviour.)